Editor's Note

The Charge

Noir from down under.

The Case

Jack Irish (Guy Pearce, Lockout) is a
sort-of decent private detective who can't seem to catch a break. Following the
tragic death of his wife, Jack has been adrift, losing himself in his work and
trying to maintain connections to his extended family. Series 2 (which is a bit
misleading as there's just one 87-minute mystery on deck) finds Jack at a
crossroads caught between an on-again/off-again romance with a radio journalist
(Marta Dusseldorp) and a family friend caught in the middle of a vicious
blackmailing scheme.

The mystery is called "Dead Point," and kicks off with a daring
drug robbery and leads to a corpse in a car. The crime intersects with Jack's
investigation on behalf of his father-in-law and as Jack digs deeper he
discovers a web of corruption and a conspiracy that will leave more than a few
bodies in its wake.

This is my first exposure to Jack Irish and I was intrigued initially
because of Guy Pearce. His star power may have gotten me in the door, but there
was enough good TV here to keep me hooked until the end. Is it the top of the
heap as far as Acorn's mystery imports? Not quite. The central mystery isn't
terribly strong and the payoff is far-fetched (the CGI explosion and the clunky
action-like capper don't do it any favors either). And the villains at the heart
of the conspiracy are cartoonish.

But it's Guy Pearce and Jack Irish who elevate the material. Jack is a
flawed, vulnerable character, long in the tooth and forlorn. Life has smacked
him around a great deal and Pearce, pro that he is, renders this
characterization perfectly. What's nifty about Jack Irish is that he's flawed,
but not in the usual "that dude is a hard drinker and womanizer and he once
killed an Albanian white slaver with a hammer" way; he makes mistakes, can
barely handle himself in a fight, and will usually run from danger rather than
encounter it. In many ways, he's the opposite of the hard-boiled private
detective; he's a beta-dick. And "Dead Point" is worthy of your time
because of it.

Acorn serves up both a DVD and a Blu-ray, the latter sporting a clean
1.78:1/1080i transfer and a DTS-HD 2.0 Master Audio track. A phpt gallery and a
seven minute offering of behind-the-scenes footage are your extras.